Public Release: 9-Jul-2015Study finds that future deployment of distributed solar hinges on electricity rate design
Future distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment levels are highly sensitive to retail electricity rate design, according to a newly released report by researchers from Berkeley Lab. The study also explores the feedback effects between retail electricity rates and PV deployment, and suggests that increased solar deployment can lead to changes in PV compensation levels that either accelerate or dampen further deployment.
DOE/SunShot Initiative

Public Release: 8-Jul-2015 Nature CommunicationsSensitive and specific: A new way of probing electrolyte/electrode interfaces
Researchers have developed a new technique that enables sensitive and specific detection of molecules at the electrode/electrolyte interface. This new method uses diffraction from graphene gratings to overcome key difficulties associated with traditional optical spectroscopy that employs infrared probing of buried interfaces.
National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 7-Jul-2015 Biomass & BioenergyScientists study ways to integrate biofuels and food crops on farms
Planting bioenergy crops like willows or switchgrass in rows where commodity crops are having difficulty growing could both provide biomass feedstock and also limit the runoff of nitrogen fertilizer into waterways -- all without hurting a farmer's profits.
DOE/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Public Release: 7-Jul-2015 Physical Review DThe ins and outs of QCD
Robert Edwards, a researcher and senior staff member at the Jefferson Lab, is the principal investigator for a team researching the energy spectrum of exotic meson resonances.
The main goal of Edwards' ALCC project is give theoretical underpinnings to the 12-GeV upgrade project and Glue-X photon detector set to open in JLAB's new HallD.
US Department of Energy

Public Release: 6-Jul-2015 Nature Climate ChangeAutonomous taxis would deliver significant environmental and economic benefits
Imagine a fleet of driverless taxis roaming your city, ready to pick you up and take you to your destination at a moment's notice. While this may seem fantastical, it may be only a matter of time before it becomes reality. And according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, such a system would both be cost-effective and greatly reduce per-mile emissions of greenhouse gases.
US Department of Energy

Public Release: 2-Jul-2015 Nature CommunicationsAluminum clusters shut down molecular fuel factory
When aluminum atoms bunch up, porous materials called zeolites lose their ability to convert oil to gasoline. An international team of scientists created the first 3-D atomic map of a zeolite in order to find out how to improve catalysts used to produce fuel, biofuel and other chemicals.
Netherlands Research School Combination-Catalysis, Netherlands Research Council, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Laboratory Directed Research Development Program

Public Release: 30-Jun-2015New CMI process recycles magnets from factory floor
A new recycling method developed by scientists at the Critical Materials Institute, a US Department of Energy Innovation Hub led by the Ames Laboratory, recovers valuable rare-earth magnetic material from manufacturing waste and creates useful magnets out of it. Efficient waste-recovery methods for rare-earth metals are one way to reduce demand for these limited mined resources.

Public Release: 29-Jun-2015Sandia's Z machine receives funding aimed at fusion energy
To hasten the day of low-cost, high-yield fusion reactions for energy purposes, a $3.8 million ARPA-E grant to Sandia National Labs and the U of Rochester will help smooth laser beams to increase output of a promising Sandia fusion technique called MagLIF.
DOE/Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy

Public Release: 26-Jun-2015 ScienceOrange is the new red
Berkeley Lab researchers discovered that a photoprotective mechanism in cyanobacteria is triggered by an unprecedented, large-scale movement from one location to another of the carotenoid pigment within the Orange Carotenoid Protein.
US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 26-Jun-2015 Nature CommunicationsOpening a new route to photonics
Berkeley scientists have developed a technique for effectively controlling pulses of light in closely packed nanoscale waveguides, an essential requirement for ultrahigh density, ultracompact integrated photonic circuitry.
Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 25-Jun-2015 ACS Environmental Science and TechnologyArgonne analysis shows increased carbon intensity from Canadian oil sands
The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory this week released a study that shows gasoline and diesel refined from Canadian oil sands has a higher carbon impact than fuels derived from conventional domestic crude sources.
Bioenergy Technologies Office and Vehicle Technologies Office within US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Public Release: 24-Jun-2015 Journal of Physical OceanographyAnalyzing ocean mixing reveals insight on climate
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a computer model that clarifies the complex processes driving ocean mixing in the vast eddies that swirl across hundreds of miles of open ocean.

Public Release: 24-Jun-2015 Angewandte Chemie International EditionSilica 'spiky screws' could enhance industrial coatings, additive manufacturing
It took marine sponges millions of years to perfect their spike-like structures, but research mimicking these formations may soon alter how industrial coatings and 3-D printed objects are produced.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program

Public Release: 23-Jun-2015 Physical Review LettersX marks the spot: Researchers confirm novel method for controlling plasma rotation
Timothy Stoltzfus-Dueck, a physicist at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, has demonstrated a novel method that scientists can use to manipulate the intrinsic - or self-generated - rotation of hot, charged plasma gas within fusion facilities called tokamaks.
The US Department of Energy's FES division

Public Release: 19-Jun-2015 Physics Review LettersNew 'molecular movie' reveals ultrafast chemistry in motion
Scientists for the first time tracked ultrafast structural changes, captured in quadrillionths-of-a-second steps, as ring-shaped gas molecules burst open and unraveled. Ring-shaped molecules are abundant in biochemistry and also form the basis for many drug compounds. The study points the way to a wide range of real-time X-ray studies of gas-based chemical reactions that are vital to biological processes.

Public Release: 18-Jun-2015 Analytical and Bioanalytical ChemistryNew tool on horizon for surgeons treating cancer patients
Surgeons could know while their patients are still on the operating table if a tissue is cancerous, according to researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Public Release: 17-Jun-2015 Nature CommunicationsA new look at surface chemistry
A multi-institutional team of researchers, including scientists from Berkeley Lab have used a new scanning electron microscopy technique to resolve the unique atomic structure at the surface of a material. This new technique holds promise for the study of catalysis, corrosion and other critical chemical reactions.
US Department of Energy Office of Science

The Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.